Slow Serb reaction on lawsuit review

Apart from a few meetings and threats with institutional blockade, Serb representatives in BiH still didn’t do anything to stop the demand for revision of the lawsuit of BiH against Serbia.

The most serious attempt was made by BiH Foreign Minister, Igor Crnadak, who ordered BiH Ambassador in Hague Mirsada Colakovic to transfer his letter to the International Court of Justice. However, she refused to do that and admitted that Bosniak member of BiH Presidency, Bakir Izetbegovic, ordered her not to do that. Crnadak said that she must do it because it is his responsibility to give the injunctions to ambassadors. This game is still ongoing and time is running out.

Leaders of RS ruling coalition, Milorad Dodik (SNSD), Marko Pavic (DNS) and Petar Djokic (SP RS) met on Sunday to discuss the situation and to decide on the initiative for the extraordinary session of the RS National Assembly.

“The Bosniak-Muslim review of the ruling in BiH’s lawsuit against Serbia, directed by Bakir Izetbegovic in the name of BiH, is an unequivocal proof that the Bosniak political, intellectual and religious elite is anti-Serb oriented, thus this is a continuation of the abuse of BiH to suit Bosniak needs”, announced the leaders after meeting.

Coalition leaders believe that it is necessary to convene a meeting of all leaders of RS-based political parties to discuss the current political crisis caused by the arbitrariness of the Bosniak member of the Presidency, but also other issues that burden the functioning of the joint institutions. Attendees of the meeting would express their expectation for a joint meeting with the leadership of the Republic of Serbia, which as a guarantor of the Dayton Peace Agreement should be informed on the situation in the functioning of the BiH institutions and unequivocal violation of the Dayton Peace Agreement.

However, it is interesting that apart from the agreement a meeting like that is essential, nobody has in fact scheduled that kind of gathering. Serb member of BiH Presidency, Mladen Ivanic, told the media that he cancelled the regular Presidency session and that he will schedule a special session on this issue for Thursday. Still it is not clear why he gave three days period to Izetbegovic to submit the demand on ICJ. Also, it is not clear why nobody scheduled the all-Serb-parties meeting, since every delay can cause that meeting come to late.

Maybe the most important question at this moment is: was this situation predictable and, if it was, who failed to do that?

One of the participants on Bosniak NVO meeting in Sarajevo on Friday told the media that the teams of experts are working secretly on the issue of review since the first verdict was announced. It means that in the last ten years Serb politicians and analysts didn’t know for that. Even when Izetbegovic in the Summer 2016 told in public that they consider this issue to be very important, there was no reaction from the Serb side.

Meanwhile, BiH loses several international investors who decided to wait for a better time for investments in country which desperately need new money and working places. Last of them is the German supermarket chain “Lidl”, who is supposed to open several shops and to employ hundreds of citizens. Unofficially, “Lidl” supposed to build shops on 15 locations in BiH with one large warehouse for all of them. However, the project is stopped and it is now clear that the biggest victims of this political crisis will be BiH citizens. At the same time, politicians continue to declare that they are doing all this – in the name of the citizens./IBNA